The Opportunity – BHA Finance and Awards Manager (For Nationals only)
Post location: Ramallah / Gaza
Contract Duration and Level of Effort: 9 months with possible extension.
***Due to the urgency to fill this role, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Kindly note that the position might be filled before the vacancy announcement is closed; therefore, early applications are encouraged.***
***This role will be contingent upon securing available funds, and we might use this vacancy to fill more than one post.***
ROLE PURPOSE:
Save the Children is seeking a Finance and Awards Manager to ensure the overall financial and award management function of an integrated, multisectoral project funded by the United States Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs (BHA), which is providing critical MPCA, nutrition and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and child protection (CP) services to affected communities across the West Bank and Gaza.
The Finance and Awards Manager will be responsible of the financial planning, analysis and reporting function with a particular focus on providing excellent financial business partnering services to the program implementation teams. S/he will provide leadership in BHA award management, progress review meetings and take required actions during programme implementation in accordance with SC and donors policies and guidelines.
The post-holder will be a member of the Gaza Office team, but their role will include coordination of Finance and Awards activities with the West Bank Field Office. If the security situation allows there will be an expectation of travel to the Country Office/Field Office Ramallah.
SCOPE OF ROLE:
Reports to: BHA Project Director
Staff reporting to this post: None
Budget Responsibilities: None
KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:
Finance Management
- Ensure accurate, complete and reliable financial information is maintained through the following actions: conduct budget vs. actuals budget analysis; ensure appropriate expensing and coding of award costs; analyse Life of Award (LoA) reports for financial monitoring of spend; conduct general ledger reviews, as needed; and determine corrective actions necessary to resolve errors, then independently manage follow-up actions between finance stakeholders.
- Oversee issues as needed and as appropriate to financial compliance including collaborating with humanitarian management team, legal team, or grants and contracts support.
- Produce detailed transaction reports as needed, for further analysis.
- Maintain knowledge on donor rules and regulations and monitor and review compliance. Support any required audits.
- Work closely with the budget holder and the BHA Project Director and operations unit to track spending, provide information for financial reporting, reference financial system for information and manage expenses re-class cost.
- Oversee and actively coordinate the development of cost proposals, including sharing and conducting necessary trainings on cost proposal templates; ensuring all Country Office costs are appropriately budgeted into the projects; conducting thorough review of proposal budgets in collaboration with country office technical leads and collaborators.
- Ensure BHA financial transactions are appropriately approved, authorized and administered, in line with SC & Donor policies.
- Ensure adequate financial records system is in place including adequate safeguarding of all financial instruments.
- Coordinate with relevant managers to ensure timely and appropriate cash flows, matched with the operational needs and budget forecasts.
- Ensure that the Project Director/Chief of Party and Managers receive timely and accurate information to inform activity planning and forecasts.
- Support monthly budget phasing and annual pipeline analysis as well as BVA commentary.
- Support BHA Director/Chief of Party, Managers and Coordinators for regular program reviews to identify areas that may require attention.
- Provide administrative and technical support to the partners to ensure that all financial documentation and reports are prepared and submitted on a timely basis in line with SC policies and project agreements.
Financial Reporting and Close-Outs
- Facilitate financial reconciliation, including final accruals, receivables, and adjustments.
- Work with the awards team to process of close-out via the Award Management System Close-Out checklist for the CO and facilitate review follow-ups as needed.
- Review financial reports prepared by Global Finance and support changes and follow up work with project team members as needed.
- Support on financial close-out of awards including analysis of expenditures and receipt balances as necessary.
Awards Management & AMS Management
- Ensure award cycle processes are followed through workflows on AMS, including that all relevant information is uploaded in the system.
- Put in place structures to support the effective dissemination of award information so that all key contributing staff have a clear understanding of requirements and expectations throughout the lifecycle of an award (opportunity to close-out).
- Lead member and local donor engagement and relationship management as the SCI focal point on awards, coordinate SCI /member reviews and revisions of proposals, budgets and agreements.
- Play a lead role in developing overall analysis of budget vs actual expenditures (BVA) for monthly award review meetings with budget holders.
- Work with budget holders to ensure they develop and implement remedial plans based on agreed action points and closely review achievements in following month.
- Coordinate budget realignments, amendments, cost and no-cost extension requests going to the member and donor in a timely manner.
- Ensure that the Awards Management System (AMS) is effectively maintained, up to date and accurately records the audit trail for sub-awards.
- Ensure that all awards are linked in PPM PRIME.
- Understand and analyse Awards Management KPI results, MI & RFT indicator results and provide management information to the SMT and identify improvements that can be undertaken to improve results in the Award Management.
Partnerships – Sub-awards and sub-grantee management duties
- In collaboration with the operations teams, support in undertaking partner assessments, legal vetting on AMS and preparation of partner agreements to ensure donor compliance requirements are factored into this.
- Analyze capacity building and compliance support with all new and existing partners including regular monitoring and systems in place so that partner delivery meets donor expectations and requirements.
- Ensure that all partner documentation including reports is uploaded onto AMS through spot checks of AMS data.
Donor Compliance
- Take part in relevant award kick off meetings leading on donor compliance to ensure requirements such as reporting deadlines, implementation period, amendment timing/procedures, audit and SCI award management policies are well understood, and a plan is in place to ensure they are met.
- Ensure potential issues and amendment requests are flagged promptly to donors via the relevant Save the Children member.
- Collaborate with the member focal point to ensure that all donor compliance requirements are input into the AMS system before the fund summary workflow is run.
Reporting
- Coordinate the Award Management team to ensure accurate and quality progress and financial reports are submitted to members and donors according to set timelines.
- Review grant reports before being submitted to member/donor.
Staff Management
- Support the Award Management team to strengthen knowledge and capacity of staff across all functions to manage awards and comply with donor requirements as relevant to their role by providing induction, training and coaching consistent with their roles and responsibilities.
- Manage performance of direct reports in the awards management work area through effectively use the Performance Management System including the establishment of clear, measurable objectives, ongoing feedback, and periodic reviews.
- Ensure coaching, mentoring and other developmental opportunities.
In order to be successful, you will bring/have:
QUALIFICATIONS
- Post graduate qualification in Finance Management, Grants Management or equivalent.
EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS
Essential:
- At least 5 – 7 years’ experience in a similar position.
- Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organize a demanding workload comprised of diverse and challenging tasks and responsibilities.
- Proven track record of active contribution to a senior management team and providing strategic support across multiple sectors.
- Extensive experience with NGOs with increasing responsibilities including a proven experience of establishing and running the award management function in the field.
- Knowledge of the requirements of major institutional donors including budgeting, eligibility issues, compliance management, and reporting
- Fluent oral and written communication skills in Arabic and English.
Desirable
- Previous BHA experience
- Experience with Save the Children award management policies, procedures and systems and Save the Children’s award management system (AMS).
- Understanding of how to produce financial reports from Save the Children’s overseas accounting software (Agresso).
Experience of project management, M&E management or funding coordination.
We offer a competitive package in the context of the sector**. This role is offered on the basis of national terms and conditions.**
Save the Children promotes a diverse and inclusive work environment, women and people with different abilities are strongly encouraged to apply.
The Organisation
Save the Children works in development and humanitarian contexts with children and partners to help families, communities, and governments identify and use innovations to ensure all children survive, learn and are protected.
We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realize the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.
We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:
• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated
We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.
How to apply
Please attach a copy of your CV and cover letter with your application, and include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations. A copy of the full role profile can be found at BHA Finance and Awards Manager.
We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.
All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our global anti-harassment policy.